3. South African Government Policy Background
3.2 A Synopsis of the Government's White Paper on E-Education
3.2.5. Strategic Objectives
One of the objectives as stated in the White Paper reads as follows:
"Every educator, manager and administrator in General and Further Education and Training must have the knowledge, skills and support they need to integrate leTs in teaching and learning. " (DOE 2003 p. 19)
The Department of Education must develop a national framework for competencies for educators (educators, managers and administrators), and the use of leTs must be integrated into pre-service and in-service training.
According to the White Paper, each school will have a dedicated educator to manage leT facilities and champion the use of leTs in the school. Support, in the form of incentives, will encourage educators, managers and administrators to integrate technology into their daily activities and areas of responsibility. This will facilitate technological change, experimentation with new ideas, and risk-taking. The Department of Education, in
collaboration with relevant government departments, needs to ascertain possibilities for subsidies and special loans to encourage educators to purchase computers for personal use. One way of ensuring educator competence in technology, is where the level of proficiency in the use of ICTs needs to become an integral part of the educator appraisal system and whole-school evaluation.
3.2.5.1. leT Professional Management
To realise the E-Education goal, educational management needs to move beyond the initial stages of ICT planning and experimentation and make focused capital investments.
Educational leaders at all levels (national, provincial, district and institutional) must leverage ICTs as a tool for improved educational performance, and re-organise educational institutions accordingly. Ultimately, educational leaders must view ICTs as an essential transformative tool for education and training, and individually promote and support the use of JCTs in their institutions. Institutional development plans must incorporate ICT development plans. The plans must address the initial cost of ICTs, infrastructure upgrades, security, recurring costs, replacement costs, maintenance and support. In addition, plans should address educator development, skills transfer, support, and additional human resource requirements.
Provincial education departments must plan and budget for training district-level subject specialists, in order to provide ongoing professional and technical support. In the Ethekweni region of KwaZulu-Natal, no Computer Studies Subject Advisor has been appointed since the year 2001. The question that arises is: What type of academic support are educators in KZN receiving with respect to ICT, and from whom?
3.2.5.2. The Role of Higher Education
Higher Education institutions and the Department of Education must work together to design and deliver in-service and pre-service training programmes for educators,
managers and administrators. It is also necessary for the Department of Education to ensure the inclusion of ICT integration competencies for educators, administrators and managers in accredited, pre-service, educator training programmes delivered by higher education institutions. Accredited pre-service educator training programmes will provide learners with the basic knowledge, skills and attitudes required to integrate ICTs into subjects of specialisation. This will require that each graduating educator is able to combine knowledge of the learning process and instructional systems theory, with various forms of media and learning environments, to create the most effective and efficient learning experiences.
3.2.5.3. Electronic Resources
The White Paper states that:
"The school curriculum in General and Further Education and Training must be supported through effective and engaging software, electronic content and online learning resources, and educators, content developers and administrators who contribute effectively to these resources. "(DOE 2003 p. 21)
Conventional print media, as well as the use of devices such as conventional radio broadcast and tape recorders, will continue to be used in schools. However, the system has relatively under-developed digital teaching and learning resources at present. It is crucial, therefore, that an education-industry partnership be developed to enhance innovative, effective and sustainable e-Iearning resources. In the interim, the Department of Education must initiate the collection and evaluation of existing digital, multimedia material that will stimulate all South African learners to seek and manipulate information in collaborative and creative ways. Digital content is critical to E-Education because it can be easily and randomly accessed, adapted and manipulated, and is accessible from many locations.
3.2.5.4. Indigenous Languages
The Department of Education, in collaboration with the Department of Arts and Culture, must promote the adaptation and development of local content into indigenous languages.
While there is a large amount of curriculum material and resources available on the Internet, this online content must be evaluated for educational relevance prior to adaptation and possible translation into indigenous languages.
3.2.5.5. Creating Electronic Content
The Department of Education must promote the generation of new electronic content that is aligned with outcomes-based education.
3.2.5.6. Digital Libraries
School libraries are currently unable to support resource-based learning in outcomes- based education. The Department of Education must promote access to digital libraries.
Information available in public libraries, museums and government offices should be made available in digital formats and networked applications. The most recent development in this regard, is the project in which 450 schools will be equipped with 3 computers each to set up a digital library (SABC 2006).
3.2.5.7. National Education Portal
The Department of Education, in collaboration with the provincial education departments, must initiate the development of a national education portal that will be linked with provincial and privately-owned portals. It should be a distributive tool and a content and information-sharing platform, hosting communications and collaboration applications for learners, educators, administrators, managers and parents. It should serve as a nucleus for building web-based resources for educators, learners and the community, making it possible to create new knowledge and add to the existing knowledge base. The
national education portal will require hosting services that should be distributed and decentralised in order to maximise efficiency and minimise duplication.
3.2.5.8. Access to leT Infrastructure
The White Paper states that:
" Every educator and learner in General and Further Education and Training must have access to leT infrastructure. " (DOE 2003 p. 22)
The provincial education departments must establish a desired level of technology resources (hardware and software) for each GET and FET institution, and assess the adequacy of existing equipment and facilities. At the very least, every GET and FET institution should have access to technology in order to:
~ manage administrative functions,
~ access electronic learning materials,
~ connect to information sources outside the classroom,
~ communicate with others in and beyond the institutional boundaries,
~ collaborate with others in and beyond the institutional boundaries, and
~ create and add to the knowledge base.
National and provincial managers and administrators must plan and mobilise funds for provincial, district and institutional resources to support hardware and equipment installation, as well as the maintenance and repair thereof.
Central to equipping schools with an ICT infrastructure is the provision of electricity and a physical infrastructure. Although there are ICT provisions that use alternative sources of energy, the Department of Education must work with the Department of Minerals and Energy to prioritise the electrification programme for GET and FET institutions. Recent
advances in solar energy developed by the University of Johannesburg (UJ 2005) have significant potential in this regard.
3.2.5.9. Connectivity
Every educator and learner in General and Further Education and Training must have access to an educational network and the Internet.